Maka's Gutted Rabbit
by IngerShadie
Summary: Crona is nervous about something, but what is that something? When Maka begins to suspect more than just simple friendship from Crona, Crona will go to extreme measures to protect his own secrets.


Crona continuously twidled his fingers and mumbled nervously to himself. He had a secret he didn't dare let anyone else know but himself and Ragnarok. He had a crush. A big,

terrible crush that tugged at his heartstrings every time she smiled and made him drool a bit when she was near him. Crona's crush was crippling, it was scary, it...well...it

crushed him. He didn't know why, but he was especially jittery today. He suspected it was because he had to get ready for school in two hours and where there was school,

there was Maka. Oh, Maka. With her pleasant smile and cute laughs of amusement-

Crona tried frantically to stop his own train of thought. This crush was what he was trying to get rid of, not encourage! But he couldn't. His daydream was too strong.

 _I love her touch and her scent and the perfume she wears smells like vanilla and strawberries and her skin is so soft and she's just so PERFECT! I can't help but melt at her_

 _smile and whenever she touches me! I can barely even keep myself from passing out when she lets me hug her!_

"Dude, are you okay? You're just mumbling to yourself about how perfect Little Miss Flat-chest is."

Crona's daydream was snapped in two by Ragnarok's voice- and so was poor Crona's dignity.

* * *

Maka always had the feeling of protectiveness around Crona, and it was only amplified when she was around an especially nervous Crona. She was sure to comfort him when he

was worried and knew how to calm him down. However, her presence today only worsened his anxiousness. It made her sympathetic and concerned. _Maybe something on his_

 _mind is bugging him?_ Maka decided to asked him during the next passing period.

"Crona, are you okay? You just seem so nervous today, more than usual. Is something wrong?" she asked. Crona tensed. "I-I-I'm f-fine!" he stammered. Maka looked at him,

his response was very much questionable. "You can tell me if something's wrong, you know. It's just me. I'm not going to hurt you or anything," Maka said, trying to reassure

Crona. It didn't work. She supposed pressuring him to speak would only worsen his mood, so she stopped asking. Maybe he would tell her later.

When Maka looked back at him, he was trembling ever so slightly as a deep gray colored over his face.

"Hey, you blush gray. Is it because of the black blood?" Maka asked, trying to change the subject. Crona nodded quickly without saying anything.

"I-I think it m-makes my face look weird. S-So, I try n-not to b-b-blush," Crona stammered again. "It n-never works."

Maka smiled. "It doesn't make you look weird. I think it's cute, actually," she said. Crona's face became as dark as the night. "Y-You think I'm cute?" he replied. Maka laughed.

"I think everyone here thinks you're cute, to be honest with you."

Crona gasped to himself. "B-But...I'm not very cute," he murmured. Maka grinned.

"Of course you are," she said.

"B-But-"

"No buts," Maka insisted. Crona just shifted uncomfortably and looked down at his feet. "I-I'm gonna g-go use restroom," he mumbled, walking away immediately in the

opposite direction of the restrooms.

"Uh, Crona, the bathroom is that way-" Maka tried to correct him, but he simply ignored her and continued walking. Guilt began to eat up her soul.

"I probably embarrassed him," she spoke to herself, ashamed. Maka looked for Soul and followed him when she found him talking to Black Star. She grabbed her books and

went to class early.

* * *

Crona found himself constantly rubbing his temples and fidgeting. Why was today so much harder to deal with? He had never felt so nervous around Maka before. Why was this

happening? Crona gave a sad sigh and thought longingly of Mr. Corner back home. Maybe Mr. Corner would understand him. Maka had told Crona at least five times now that he

shouldn't personify corners, but he just couldn't help himself. The feeling that an inanimate thing could willingly comfort him felt good. He looked up from his desk and looked

around himself. Crona had never wanted to just go home already more than he did now. He looked at his own trembling hands. "What on Earth is wrong with me...?" he

whispered to himself. Crona looked at his homework that had been neatly placed in front of him. He was in absolutely no mood for homework, he just wanted to put his head

down and take a nap or something. However, Crona assumed Miss Marie wouldn't be pleased to see him slacking off on his work, so he picked up his pencil and began to fill in

the blanks on his work. Crona also knew he couldn't afford to let his grades drop any lower. No matter how many times Maka explained these things to him, he just couldn't

understand it. "You don't seem very confident about that worksheet right there. Do you need some help?"

Crona flinched and looked in the direction in which the voice came from. He heard a chuckle.

"Sorry if I scared you, I really should be more careful. My apologies," said Kid. Crona sighed.

"You're right. Maka keeps trying to help me understand it, but I just don't get it. She explains way to fast for me to keep up with her. There's these weird, long vocabulary words

everywhere and outcomes of each situation with different souls- it's so confusing!"

Death the Kid looked at his homework. "At least half of those answers are nowhere near the correct one. Are you paying close attention in class?" Kid asked. Crona blushed.

"No," he mumbled forlornly, quite ashamed of himself. Kid sat down next to him. "No worries. But if you want to understand, it would be a good idea to pay attention in class,"

he said. Crona nodded sadly.

 _If only he knew what was keeping me from focusing..._

"So, do you understand what this word means?" Kid asked, pointing to a long word on Crona's fill-in-the-blank homework.

"No," Crona replied.

"Okay, you might want to write that down in your notes, you're going to see that word on a regular basis until you graduate from here. If you plan on being a teacher, you're

seeing this for the rest of your life."

"O-Oh. Okay."

"What about this one?"

"I kind of understand it. It's sort of fuzzy."

"This term relates to that other term very closely."

"Okay."

"So, here's what they mean..."

Ten minutes later, Crona was in utter bewilderment. How on Earth did Kid explain that homework better than Maka? Nonetheless, he deeply appreciated Kid's help. Maybe now

he could bring his dropping grades up...

"Kid, could you tutor me?" Crona asked out of the blue. The question simply rolled off of his tongue when he didn't mean for it to. Kid didn't scowl at him as Crona had half

expected. Instead, he smiled again.

"Sure, but just one, small request...?" Kid replied to his question. Crona frowned.

"What is it?"

"Be sure to fill in the circles completely. I also want you to be sure that you always have the _exact_ number of words on each side of the paper. Also be sure that when you write

your name on it, I should be able to cut it in half and see that both sides are the exact same length-"

Crona flailed his arms. "Okay, okay, okay- you want a symmetrical paper, I-I understand!" he squealed, trying to shut down Kid's rant before it manifested into an hour-long

speech about the beauty of symmetry.

It didn't work.

* * *

Maka sat on the edge of her bed, trying hard to focus on the book she was reading. Something was bothering her though, and she was having a hard time ignoring it. After the

way Crona had started to nervously avoid her after she platonically called him "cute," she knew she had to do something. Maka had been avoiding the elephant in the room for

too long, and it was about time she took attention to it.

So she began to debate on whether or not Crona might have fallen in love with her.

Maka wouldn't lie, the way Crona adored her stuck out like a sore thumb. But there was clearly a difference between enjoying someone's company and loving them. Crona

blushed when she complimented him. His nervousness would sometimes even get worse, which was absurd because her presence usually calmed him down.

At that moment, another strange thought went into Maka's head.

"What if I love him, but I don't even know it?" she mumbled quietly to herself. "Crona _is_ adorable. He's just so innocent and one-of-a-kind. His stutter and his shyness is pretty

cute too."

Maka dropped onto her bed and layed on her side, slowly drifting off into sleep.

"Oh, Crona. I wish he could see what's good about him. He has such low self esteem. I wish I could find some way to boost it some more. He's so sweet and generous, he has no

idea how much everyone here loves him. It really hasn't been too long since we took him in, he's still trying to get snug and he improves little by little, I guess. That's what

makes him so cute. Crona's absolutely precious and doesn't even know it..."

Maka's eyelids drooped.

"He has really nice eyes and hair too. I love his hair, it's so soft and pink. C-Crona's actually kind of good looking too. His legs are pretty long and he's got a nice face."

Maka blushed.

"I guess it wouldn't be so bad to date Crona..."

With that, she lost her grip on consciousness and fell into a satisfying sleep.

* * *

In the next few days, Crona had become much more confident in his academics. Thanks to him and Death the Kid's newfound friendship, he'd also been able to raise his grades

before he'd been assigned one of those _terrifying_ extracurricular assignments. Maka had told him the tale of when she and her friends had been assigned to defeat Sid, who was

apparently a zombie. After this storytime, he had wanted nothing to do with extracurricular assignments. Or Sid for that matter, though Crona had been scared of Sid since the

very beginning.

Crona wasn't frightened much when Miss Marie had announced that there would be a test in two weeks. Kid turned out to be not as intimidating as he'd first thought. His

golden eyes and strength added with his disgust towards him when they had first met. But now he was helping him with his Plasmology homework!

Despite all of this, Crona's crush on Maka still gave him a difficult time. He tried as hard as he could to focus, but Crona's anxiety constantly reminded him of his conflict.

 _What if she thinks that it's weird that I feel like this about her? She'll probably won't take me seriously because of how pathetic I am. I couldn't blame her...What if she likes_

 _Soul? I don't want to have to fight Soul, he scares me! I don't want to cause trouble either._ Crona had improved in his social and personal life, but he still felt so out of place. The

loud bell knocked him out of his thoughts. Miss Marie smiled.

"Have a good evening! Remember, the one paragraph paper about section 1 is due the day after tomorrow."

Crona began doodling on a stray piece of paper in the hallway during passing period. Sloppy hearts, trees, birds, and stick people began to fill up his paper. He was about to try

and draw the frog on the cover of his science book when something disturbing to him went into his ear- and it was Maka's voice.

"...I think he loves me," Maka said, as quietly as a speaking voice could get. A female gasp responded.

"Really?" said Tsubaki. "Well...he does really like being around you. You mean so much to him."

"I know I do, and he's really important to me too! Tsubaki...?"

"Yes?"

"...Do you think it would hurt our friendship if I told him that I think he loves me?"

"Well..."

At first, Crona simply didn't believe they were talking about him, and he didn't want to. But now he sat on the edge of his seat, trembling in fear, and praying to all the gods

that they _weren't_ talking about him.

Today, the gods were not in Crona's favor.

"Crona won't admit it so easily, you know how jumpy he is. You might have to catch him making it obvious by accident if you want the truth," Tsubaki replied to Maka's

question.

"I'd feel a bit cruel, doing that to him," Maka said. "I don't want to tease him about it or make him feel ashamed or scared, I want him to be comfortable with me about it."

"Friendship is kind of new to Crona. There's no doubt love is foreign to him too, the poor thing."

Crona's breathing tensed and he began to tremble even more as horror completely engulfed him. He began to get up from his seat when someone interrupted him.

"Hey, Crona...?" Maka's voice asks from behind him. "Do you-"

Crona reacted to this by screaming in terror and running away, possibly to find someone or something to hide behind.

"AAAAAAHHH!" he yelped, dashing away immediately.

"C-Crona! Wait, I just wanted to..." Maka tried and failed to ask Crona. She sadly looked at her feet and groaned. "This won't be easy..."

Tsubaki sympathetically gave Maka a pat on the shoulder.

"So, what would you do if he actually confessed his feelings to you?"

Maka paused. "I kind of love him too..."

Tsubaki cupped her hands over her mouth in shock. The shock turned into excitement.

"That's too cute!" she whispered.

Maka blushed. "I-I'm not for sure yet, but I think I should do something about it."

"Just go at your own pace, Maka. Nobody's rushing you," Tsubaki said. At that last moment, someone caught Tsubaki's eye. She laughed. "Especially not him over there."

Tsubaki pointed.

"Hm?" Maka asked as she turned her head to find Crona on the other side of the room, quivering fearfully as he hid in the corner.

* * *

"K-Kid?" Crona stuttered shyly, trying as hard as he could to ask. Kid looked at him.

"Yes?"

"C-Could I...t-talk to you? In private?"

"Um...sure? Is something wrong?"

"K-Kind of..."

"Something personal, I'm assuming?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I can talk to you on the balcony after school."

"T-Thank you."

Eventually, the end of the day rolled around and Crona _had_ to address the problem. He followed Kid to the balcony. Death the Kid waited patiently for Crona to say what was

wrong. Crona tried with all of his might to say it and soon enough, it fell out of his mouth.

"P-Please pretend to be my boyfriend!" he blurted.

Kid looked unsure as to what Crona had just said. "...Wait, what?"

"J-Just pretend!"

"Your _boyfriend_?"

"Yes!"

"But...why?"

"I-I..." Crona hesitated. "Maka thinks..."

"It's okay, I won't judge you for anything. Say what's on your mind."

"Maka thinks...t-that I like her...a-and its scaring me. If you and me are pretending to date each other, she won't suspect anything!"

"But...why are you trying to hide these things from her?"

"Because! I-I just can't afford to lose what I have!"

Kid chuckled. "I don't think you understand. Honestly, Maka is nowhere near as intimidating as she tries to be around her friends, she's really a big softie who likes books. She

loves your company, Crona. Maka would find you falling in love with her endearing- that's just the way she is."

Crona covered his face. "I-I'm scared. I'm scared of going that far. I-I've never loved anyone before! N-Not like this! I-"

Kid gave a tired sigh. "I'll do it."

Crona's eyed widened. "R-Really? You will?"

"Yes."

"K-Kid," Crona whispered, overwhelmed with relief. He suddenly pounced onto Kid, hugging him tightly. "T-Thank you! I can't express how thankful I am for this!"

Kid frowned in confusion, but then smiled at the other boy. "It's really no problem."

Crona looked up at him. "S-So...fake boyfriends?"

"Fake boyfriends."


End file.
